Read and Grow Rich

One day two boys were out walking in the woods when they looked up to see a huge grizzly bear charging in their direction.

The boys took off running as fast as they could. Suddenly, one of the boys stopped, pulled his tennis shoes out of his backpack, and started lacing them up as fast as he could.

"What are you doing!!!" screamed his friend. "Those tennis shoes won't help you outrun a bear!"

"I don't need to outrun the bear," the other boy shouted as he sprinted away in his tennis shoes. "I only need to outrun you!"

This was one of the many interesting stories author Burke Hedges shared in his book Read and Grow Rich. The charging grizzly is analogous to the increasing competition in this information age, and the tennis shoes are the "slight edge" that reading gives you. A small but crucial advantage that spells the difference between survival and disaster. The boy with tennis shoes will not only survive in the information age, he will thrive because he has prepared himself for the challenges ahead. The boy without the tennis shoes will become a victim of the hard-charging information age.

I happened to pick up this book at the library on Wed and it only took me one day to finish reading it. What's more, I read majority of it on my commute to and from school. With an adjusted title from Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, Read and Grow Rich is about how the power of reading can enrich a person's life in more than one area.

It is a short, easy to read book that I would recommend to those of you who haven't read in ages. And if you can't get your hands on the book, at least spend 15 minutes of reading a day.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read - Mark Twain.